Commentary
The once richest state in economic opportunity and liberties has become the poorest state in the nation and one of the least free states in America. (Tyranny competing with New York.)
How? There is a total war on private homeownership, family cars, freeways, and liberty, moving millions of Californians from freedom to dependency to tyranny.
Authoritarian California laws work tirelessly to drive people out of the mobility and safety of their family cars and their family homes—into concrete cells in high density, high tower apartments, public housing, public transit, and ultimately homelessness.
In 2023–2024, a package of bills allegedly dealing with “affordable” housing were passed and signed into law. Instead, these bills advanced expensive taxpayer-subsidized public housing by other names. What was missing was any increase in the free-market supply of single-family homes. Gone was the prospect of the American dream continuing to prosper in California.
How did California get to where it is now?
It was a long way and a long time coming.
It started well and ended badly.
What California Once Was
California, the forever beacon of wealth from whales to cattle to gold to timber to technology, was always welcoming new immigrants to new opportunities.
For hundreds of years Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans came to California from the south and the east seeking economic opportunity and social equality as well as sunshine and mild winters.
After World War II, the GI Bill, affordable home mortgages, and visionaries built new housing tracts for returning veterans relocated from less comfortable climes and their fixed parochial cultures of the Midwest and the East Coast. Cynics made fun of the “ticky-tacky” tract homes depriving the “deplorable” souls who lived there of the pleasures of their own hearths and homes.
Bipartisan visionaries also built highways, rapidly linking housing tracts to jobs.
It took decades to halt the upwardly mobile from acquiring homes, cars, and jobs.
Eventually, California went from an opportunity society—from blue collar—to white collar in one generation, and then to no collar. It went from widespread prosperity to poorest in the nation in supplies of housing and energy.
Really, what needs to be fixed?
Housing Shortage
According to Hans Johnson of the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), California has a housing shortage of 3.5 million housing units. That’s for a population of 40 million.
In September 2023, the Orange County Register reported that California’s largest cities, metropolitan areas, were short by over 800,000 units. This 6.5 percent housing shortage was twice the national average.
With a median home value of $900,000 in 2024, California’s “young”—including 40-to-50-year-olds—cannot afford what few homes are available. And there was no respite in renting. The smallest apartments often cost more than the massive mortgages for which few could qualify.
Legislation in 2023 to 2024, establishing Below Market Rate (BMR) housing, was rent control by other names.
For decades, rent control and limits on evictions have discouraged private construction of apartments in California—so unions can do it at high expense, serving the millions who need housing that’s more affordable than an old car or Mommy’s bedroom.
Homelessness
Besides mental illness, disease, and drug addiction, the decades-long slow-motion moratorium on building housing has contributed at least in part to the violent deaths of the homeless, out in the open and vulnerable to human predators, as well as medieval diseases.
Homelessness in California does not stop with drug addicts, the mentally ill, the diseased, and the poor. It ends up on your doorstep and/or your neighbors’.
Welcome to the New Homeless Californians—children and grandchildren living in old cars, rundown trailer parks, sky-high concrete box apartments, Mommy’s spare bedroom, furnished garages, or backyard spaces under tiny roofs.
Meanwhile, hotel rooms are offered to illegal immigrants. Our children and vets need not apply.
Who Is Next?
But for Proposition 13’s limits on annual increases on property taxes, grandparents might be joining their progeny on the sidelines of society. Nearly half of California’s homeless are over 50 years old.
Though it’s difficult for older folks, those who can escape from California for the less comfortable climes of baking deserts or steamy states, are doing so. The vacancies left by escapees add little to solve shortages of affordable housing.
Indeed, California’s relative population loss in the 2020 census dictated a first-ever loss in representation in the U.S. Congress.
What can people do to continue living in family homes? The most affordable housing is located miles and hours away from jobs.
Commute Marathons
Thousands of Californians drive for hours from affordable homes in faraway suburbia, in San Bernardino-Riverside and the Central Valley, to urban jobs in Los Angeles and San Francisco-San Jose, respectively.
They commute two or three hours a day from the Central Valley to the Bay Area; 80,000 drive over the Altamont Pass to and from San Joaquin County and the Bay Area. Seventy-five percent drive alone to jobs in San Jose, Fremont, or Pleasanton.
Virtually none, 2.5 to 3 percent, take public transit, a bus, or a train.
How Did This Happen?
Local government building codes prevent families from building modest housing for their elderly parents or children on their own private property.
Laws reduce private homeownership, highways, and cars—and instead substitute public transit and public housing. They limit suburban growth and the number of cars and highways getting people to and from home and work. This reduces the liberties and choices of citizens.
So most housing shortages and long commutes are the direct result of public policies intended to eliminate “sprawling” suburbs with their “ticky-tacky” housing tracts.
The lack of parking options may force you to consider giving up your car. The high costs of building fees and environmental policies in California have led to soaring housing prices and inadequate housing supplies. The excessive fees before even beginning construction on a single-family home have resulted in a shortage of affordable housing. This environmental impact has also contributed to increased greenhouse gas emissions from longer commutes and traffic congestion.
Legislation exempting certain requirements but adding others has made housing construction up to 40 percent more expensive, essentially creating public housing. The implementation of high-density housing can lead to increased crime, social disorder, and health issues. Additionally, the return of public housing projects has raised concerns about safety and quality of life.
California’s poor road conditions, high gas taxes, and diversion of funds have left many bridges and roads in disrepair. The state’s gas taxes are among the highest in the nation, contributing to the significant price difference at the pump. Despite promises to build and repair roads and bridges, many projects have been delayed or diverted for other uses.
Public transit options have not been successful in reducing congestion, as many residents still prefer to use their cars. Policies aimed at reducing vehicle miles traveled have made suburban housing less accessible and affordable. California’s unique gasoline blends and regulations have further driven up prices and reduced competition in the market.
In order to address these issues, a focus on deregulation and increasing housing supply through free market competition may be necessary. Additionally, there may be a need for a voter revolt to address the challenges facing California’s infrastructure and housing market. Please rewrite the following sentence.
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